Melbourne Comedy Festival Part 2 – List Operators
In the quiet of the Bosco Theatre
Beneath the roof that holds the rain
The curtains are down, the lights flick on
All the peaceful quietness is gone
The room bursts into a splendid applause
No stop, no hesitation, no sudden pause
The List Operators! The Kings of Laughter
They couldn’t get any more funny or dafter
They fling things around, take things wildly
They aren’t gloomy or mopey or handle jokes mildly
One with a moustache that likes raising his eyebrow
The other is just as funny, it’s time to laugh now
They may be some strangers walking by
Making you laugh and you have no idea why
So gather up your wits and go and see them
Cos they are cool and love F-U-N
Melbourne Comedy Festival Part 1 – Simon Pampena in Planet of the Primes
I sat down in the front row inside the Bosco Theatre. All was quiet. The lights went off. Muffled excited cries from children around the stage. “Shush” went the exasperated parents.
The screen we were staring at suddenly showed colourful words. The music started and we heard a commotion between a man and a woman (Julia Gillard and Gavin). They were discussing how to share 7 chops between 3 people (Kevin Rudd was coming to dinner). The man said suddenly “What’s a prime number?”, and so that was when the fun began.
A gentleman with cool sparkly leggings came out on to the stage. The screen changed to spacey mode. He noticed a small galaxy out of the window. He called it the ‘Maths Galaxy’, but to reach it we had to go through a mass of confusing sums. I knew most of them, but they were going too fast for me to answer them.
We finally got into the galaxy and came across a peculiar looking planet. It was all bubbly and had rings – it looked a bit like Saturn. We landed on a dusty, shrub grown planet and decided to take a look around. Just as we were looking at a mysterious sign an alien creeps up on us! The alien looks pretty weird – one eye, red-purplish lips, that kind of thing. However he is a friend and he shows us his herd of sheep (he calls one sheep a shep!). They look even weirder than he does.
We find out that prime numbers are odd numbers that can only be divided by themselves or one. They then try to put 6 sheep together but it didn’t work because 3 can go into 6. However he did take one shep away, and put together 5 of them.
They then decided to go to Prime Mountain to find out how many shep they could find and the biggest prime number. They found a big one, a bigger one and a huge one! The biggest one they could find was the whole planet! And they were trapped right inside it! They pondered a while until the sparkly leggings man found out that if he added one more shep to the planet then they would be free. Clever huh! Hooray for the sparkly leggings guy (who’s name was Simon by the way!).
Big V loved this. However it would have got top marks for tofu steaks rather than chops 
Cool Geelong #2 The Sprout and Bean
The Bean and Sprout were rather stout
and so were all the pumpkins
Their Mothers said ‘Now go to bed’
all you little munchkins!
Now all the little beans and sprouts went to bed that night
they weeped and wailed until it was light
In the morning they packed their bags
and set off for a cafe
it was called ‘The Sprout and Bean’
quite suitable little munchkins, all very keen
All the little plants studied cookery books
then became great cooks!
So now you can see them today making vegie soup
Hooray for The Sprout and Bean
yay, yipee, whooo!
When in Geelong, eat at ‘The Sprout and Bean’. It gets the Big V thumbs up for organic and (mainly) vegetarian food and they are really friendly too.
The Sprout and Bean
163 Malop Street, Geelong VIC 3220
03 5222 1270
Vegetable and Barley Soup from The Sprout and Bean. Yum.
Pfeffernüsse love
Pfeffernüsse is a German spice biscuit that is rather nice to eat and very easy to make. I experienced making them on the weekend and the result was fantastic! I learnt a lot from making these biscuits and also got to eat them afterwards!
My Pa speaks German and knows many things about the German culture – so he will really like these pfeffernüsse when I make some more.
Thank you to Rosa for her recipe – it was yummy yums!
Diary of a Pfeffernüsse
Wow! What a day! I look very handsome indeed from where Orla has smothered me in icing sugar. I’m very hot inside the oven where I am sitting. I wish they would be more careful with us. Sun is not good for a pfeffernüsses’ skin. Anyway, Guten Tag (that is hello in German). I’m Mr Pfeffernüsse and I am the most supreme, lovely, delicious biscuit in the world. I, my nephew and niece got to meet the Queen once. My nephew and niece got eaten for dessert in Frankfurt. Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed my company, but I’m on someone’s plate ready to be eaten …. arrrgggh …. (my diary ends here!).
Roller Mania
I hold my breath as Mum ties up my rollerskates. We’re down at the Geelong waterfront for some roller action! It’s not easy rollerskating for the first time in a while – certainly not on gravely paths. I look out at the bay – a bubbling blue puddle.
I start to walk with my stoppers on, walking like a ballerina, except less graceful. I then whiz across to the smooth path. Suddenly I come to one of those nasty cracks that creep up on you when you least expect it. My wheel hit the crack. I jump, I twist, I sway back and forwards. I claw at the air. THUNK! I groan. I do the splits and my legs are sore. It’s not easy getting up when you have two big clunky boots on your legs. I gradually get up and start again.
The merry music of the carousel was driving me crazy. I decide to get away from it and race towards the main road. A big gap was up ahead, but I was ready, With a quick reflex I grabbed the nearest thing and started again.
After a big afternoon roller skating I thought I’d do something relaxing … drawing? Nah. Maths? No! Cooking pfeffernüsse. Yes!
Golden Plains 2010
Golden Plains Music Festival hosts the coolest music ever heard and inspires dancing and fun all through the crowd. At night, you listen to heavy metal and rock by the light of a lantern. There were all types of different bands – some of my favourites were The Super Wild Horses, Pavement, Tame Impala and Crayon Fields.
Food is eaten anytime, at the International Food Court, where you can try Hare Krisha and there is also a cool truck that is called Beatbox Kitchen where I tried a ’shroom burger’. It was so juicy!
The toilets at Golden Plains are called ‘compost toilets’ because they have no flushing or chemicals. When you go to the toilet you tip 1 scoop of sawdust in to the toilet. You can find the toilets easily because they have a landmark coloured flag.
While you are camping, you may choose to go many areas including South Pines, Muddy Pathways or Yurt Village. Yurts are Mongolian huts decorated with patterns and colours and you can hire them at the festival.
This year the crowd decided to hold the ‘Mud Olympics’ since it was so rainy. There is mud bike riding, mud surfing and mud wrestling. The winner gets a cup of refreshing beer. Someone decided to bring along a boogie board for lots of mud surfing action.
Something else exciting happened. While I was in my tee-pee, my tooth suddenly fell out! I have now buried it under a big rock that I’ve named ‘Tooth Rock’.
We often go out for bush walks. Once Mum and I were out walking and we saw a gentleman at his camp spot. He gave us two tablets and said we should put them inside our esky when we got back to our camp spot. We did what we were told and the tablet unfolded inot a little hand washer!
This year whilst crunching through the twigs and dried leaves, we came across the outdoor theatre. A film wasn’t playing, but we go to see where the projector was and the screen.
You can also take your bike along, I look my old BMX. This guy with a beard came up to me and showed me how to ride down the hill and spray people with mud. I bet he has been to Golden Plains many times judging by how rough and tough he was.
The Meredith Eye is fun. We went inside the capsule and got a great view of the Yurts and campsite.
It rained lots across the weekend. I stayed huddled under my tee-pee while Mum and Dad danced outside.
We can’t wait to go back next year!